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Monday, March 17, 2014

As we enter the final throes of the Challenge there has been a flurry of excitement here at 'Awdry Towers' as I struggle to finish off units before the allotted deadline. To that end I present these fine warriors from the Matabele nation, all sixteen of them! They are all 28mm miniatures from North Star Military Figures and to quote their site, "The Matabele are an African tribe whose origins were in the mighty Zulu Nation. During the early 19th Century they rebelled and create an infamous name for themselves as they escaped North to settle in what is now Zimbabwe. The Matabele Kingdom was defeated in 1893 and 1896 by Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company."

This entry is made up of four of their packs including Warriors in full Regalia (Insuga Regt.), Matabele Amadoda Warriors, Chief and Izinduna and finally Matabele Warriors Firing Muskets.

All took far longer than I thought they would, what with all their cow tail ornaments, shield designs ostrich feathers! Still finally done and off the table, phew!

These are beautiful figures Michael. I'm not familiar with the North Star range but I must say these look to be cracking sculpts. I really love the skin tone you've achieved with these fellows and the hide shields are marvellous.

These sixteen Matabele warriors will give Michael 80 points which in addition to your upcoming bonus round points will put you well over you 1000 point second target. Congratulations Michael - Lovely work and a wonderful effort overall!

First of all, thanks a lot for the Challenge and for all you have done these last three months for us.

Here is the cherry on the cake, a 35-40mm Gripping beast figure for JUGULA, the new game of Studio Tomahawk, my first try on this scale.

A completely different process of painting based on the three layers improved by 2 more layers on the greatest parts with few washes and glazes here and there.

A total of 6 hours of painting, fortunately I only need 3 more figures to play.

No oil on the body, yes I like gladiator movies...

Ooh, wonderful work Gilles. I've heard of this upcoming game from Studio Tomahawk and I'm very eager to see both the 'Jugula' rules and the models myself. By the look of your figure above it would seem that they'll have a very nice range of Gladiators on offer. I feel my wallet leaving my back pocket of its own volition...

To complete my ever expanding British forces, here are some more rides for my poor bloody infantry. This time something heavier than those Universal Carriers, namely some M5 half-tracks. Now the M5 was created when the usual manufacturers like Autocar, Diamond T and White could not keep up with the demand. Additional models were produced by the International Harvester Company. But since they had different machinery from the others changes had to be made to the design. Most of all a different type of steel was used for the armour, which made the vehicle heavier and made the armour made it slightly less effective against small AP rounds but reduced the chances of shrapnel. This lead to the use of different axles and a strengthened hull. But the only outward difference between the M5 and M3 models were that the rear corners were rounded, while the mudguards had right angeles ends. Anyway, the US government saw these features as shortcomings and as a result the M% became an export (lend-ease) version. Which is why I picked it for my Brits.

The halftrack model itself is by Warlord (it seems now OOP). I had initially thought about using Corgi models for my Brits like I did with my Americans, but decided against it on the grounds, that I wanted M5 for them. Plus the good people at Warlord gave me its dimensions before ordering and I found that it was the same size. Well that is until the models arrived and I found that it actually was smaller. I decided not to care since chances of US and British infantry operating side by side on the tabletop are about the same as finding a snowball in hell. When I finally cleaned the models up this Christmas I regretted that decision, since I spend more than two hours on each of them just cleaning them up.

Now looking at the markings, you will find, that these are not for 3rd (British) Infantry Division like all my infantry and carriers, but for the Guards Armoured Division. Now I had a bit of a problem finding out if 3rd Infantry Division actually had these or not. What I found seemed to indicate their use as ambulances or for HQ´s but I remained constantly unsure if they were used as a troop carrier. On the other hand, they were used as such with the Armoured Divisions so this seemed like a natural choice. Why the Guards? Well as you know I am modeling my infantry on the South Lancs from 3rd Infantry Division. Now on D-Day and in Normandy they were supported by the 27th Armoured Brigade. Unfortunately they were disbanded late summer 1944 and distributed to other units so I would not get much milage from them. And they were using a lot of DD Shermans, but no Fireflys so they would not have fit my needs anyway. So I chose the Irish Guards for my tank formations. In theta sense, I painted the halftracks to fit.

Now the passengers are by Victory Force Miniatures. I only bought enough for one carrier, since these were designed to it into a Corgi halftrack and I wanted to make sure they would fit this one, too. Since they do like a charm, I will have to get myself two more sets of passengers from them in due time, as well as drivers and a passenger for the gunners position.

While we are talking about the gunners position. The M5 was supplied to the British with a full complement of .50cal and .30cal machine guns. Most British formations chose to remove these and did not use them. I chose to do the same here, so these are unarmed.

Well the extra work you put into these models certainly paid off Burkhard because they're the envy of any gamer or collector. I particularly like the photo which details the interior with the seated Tommies and their gear. I'm also very impressed with the subtle weathering on the decals - very deftly done.

These three fine halftracks along with their passengers will give Burkhard 65 points. Excellent stuff.

This is definitely my last entry. The last 3 have actually been bonuses as I really didn't think I'd get any of them completed in time!

This is another Germanic shock cavalry unit for Comitatus using Miniart figures with one Italeri ring-in.

I just want to say a BIG thanks to Curt for running this challenge again, and congrats to everyone who managed to meet their targets. If you didn't, oh well, there's always next year!

Thanks also to everyone who left kind comments on my entries; it's much appreciated, especially when my humble efforts are compared to some of the jaw-dropping stuff on display here over the last few months. I'm sorry I didn't have my act together enough for the extra bonus rounds, but certainly enjoyed seeing everyone else's efforts!

Thank you Ben, it was a pleasure to have you as part of the Wild Bunch.

The entry fee cowboy is 28mm, Foundry, and Metal. Inspired by those blood splattered images in Curts post about the Challenge. My photos are not the best and sorry about his face being out of focus but I am a painter not a photographer. When I ordered from Foundry they were nice enough to send two bonus figures. However they are doubles of ones in the blisters I ordered but I did consider other gun slinging cowboys to send but I think this guys nice and unique looking. I thought he might like this wounded, hatless, gunslinger.

I don't always paint eyes but I did on this guy. He may be the entry fee but also a thank you for all that hard work in getting our painted figs posted. It's been a blast. Cheers!

The Gladiator is Foundry 28mm metal and the Early Imperial Roman Army Standard is Warlord Games. An unlikely pair really. The Gladiator is a Dimachaerus (bearing two knifes).

What we know about this class of Gladiator is perhaps not as much as we know about other types. It certainly was not one of the more popular classes and thought of as much less noble than other types. That's what is generally thought at the moment in any case. Both painted with Vallejo paints and the Eagle Standard fella had Army Painter Strong Tone Dip painted on but then further highlights once dry and matt varnished.

The Cowboys with guns are Foundry 28mm and gets me very near to completing all the cowboys in my collection.

More members to the Black Hat Gang to cause trouble and mayhem when they go to town. You can see the two amigos, the tall hat twins and, sharp eye.

This is wonderful work Brendon and thank you very much for the excellent desperado. I also quite like the 10 gallon hats on those two cowpokes - you could hide a passel of heifers in them there chapeaus! Heehaw!!The Roman, gladiator, cowboys and desperado will give Brendon 55 points. Well done and thanks again.

For my 11th entry I've gone back to my 15mm Nine Years War French. The regt is another Chevauleger (Horse) regt. Noailles Horse was raised in 1689 and fought at the battles of Fleurs, Namur and Steenkirk and is the only Chevauleger regt dressed in red cuffed red!

I was wondering how long you could keep away from this period (and scale). Seriously, great work Ray. The red you're using for these fellows seems a bit more 'punchy', has something changed or perhaps it's just the photography? The shading on the horses looks very nice as well.